As many readers of this blog know, I love to hike and bring back pictures from the various trails of wildlife so this story was particularly chilling for me. Darsh Patel was hiking with his four friends when they spotted a black bear in New Jersey and stopped to take pictures. Patel continued to take five pictures with his cellphone as the 300-pound bear charged and killed him.
I have seen dozens of black bears while backpacking and hiking, particularly in Virginia and Michigan. Attacks are incredibly rare. I often see black bears on the Old Rag hike or other locations in the Shenandoah. I black bears come through camp sites at night in past years without incident.
In this case, the hikers are in the Apshawa Preserve in West Milford in September and decided to split up when the male bear got closer. The bear selected Patel and mauled him — even gouging his cellphone.
The bear was later shot by a police officer and was found to have digested human flesh. It was a four year old male bear.
Police said that Patel, 22, was the first person to be killed by a bear in New Jersey. That is a rather surprising statistic for a state like New Jersey with ample forested areas, even considering the low likelihood of such attacks. Black bears have killed 61 people in North America since 1900. As one bear site host remarked,”My chances of being killed by a domestic dog, bees, or lightning are vastly greater. My chances of being murdered are 60,000 times greater. One of the safest places a person can be is in the woods.”
Source: NY Post
Sandi…very good point. It may be that the attack was so fast they could do little…and it can also be that under pressure they folded and ran off. A couple of years ago a man and his wife were hiking on back country trails in Yellowstone park. The woman was attacked first, by an angry Grizzly, but her husband intervened…and lost his life doing so, saving his wife’s life. So, yes, there really are people of courage that will step in…however tragic the outcome might become. Stepping up to a Grizzly in an attack on another takes unusual courage, and doing in defense of another person even more…when you could just run away.
The “friends” that ran did nothing? I wasn’t there, so don’t understand the circumstances, but doing nothing would haunt me forever. No one on a hike had anything for protection? This is why I don’t hike (besides hating it). I don’t want my friends to feel bad about leaving me alone with a bear.
Paul, I hear you have bashful kidneys w/ bears.
trooper, Being a Brooklyn homeboy you are probably not aware that Yogi franchised Jellystone Park into a campground empire. He must have lost that business when he got into cocaine and honey speedballs?
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gSeUTpTmKWM/TZe8g8meHTI/AAAAAAAAHME/pjkz5Krf3EI/s1600/animal023.jpg
Yogi had lost it all. Ling Ling was only with him for a green card but once Obama declared amensty she was gone. Yogi had gone from being a respected cartoon character, movie star and mayor of Jellystone Park to a homeless derelict looking for sex in the parks men’s room like a cut rate George Michael. So if you are traveling to a national park and a bear strikes a wide stance next to you at the urinal……beware of Yogi Bear. (Joseph Barbera. Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear The E True Hollywood Story of Yogi Bear)
Frankly, if I go in the urinal and there is a bear of any kind in any stance, I am high-tailing it out of there. 😉 Just saying. I am not waiting to get an autograph.
Trooper – I think the photo at 5:21 is actually Shia LeBearf, not Yogi,
BTW, I think it speaks well for Yogi that he was willing to date outside his species. Although I am not sure that this doesn’t speak more to his desperation for a partner.
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-iB9D6CF309E/TZd3Yn3QjhI/AAAAAAAAHLk/_2BTelSRcRo/s1600/tumblr_kyra9rlAec1qzpe8uo1_500.jpg
Yogi had a hard time adjusting after the show ended and the gang scattered. His girlfriend Cindy left him and became a lesbebear. Boo Boo had left to live in a guest house on OJ Simpsons place and Ranger Smith had moved on to Washington after he was elected as the senior senator from South Carolina.. The old gang was gone and the grotto was empty. Nobody was visiting him anymore. So he decided to do what a lot of lonely middle aged men do. His good friend shouting thomas introduced him to lotusflower.com an Asian dating site where he started to correspond with a lovely Panda named Ling Ling. They emailed back and forth and skyped until she took the plunge and flew over to meet with him. Yogi was in love. Because even though she was a bear she liked to do it doggie style.
(Joseph Barbera. Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear The E True Hollywood Story of Yogi Bear)
Not a 100% sure here, but think bears do do it doggie style. 😉
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZiiGIPkxsok/TZe3lpz4m1I/AAAAAAAAHL0/Htf2Q7FL-dQ/s1600/Funny-Mill-Funny-Polar-Bear-Collection-pic-25.jpg
Yogi fell into a sexual abyss after the show was done. He wandered around wherever bears congregated and fell into deviant behavior. Many vistas where open to him as he was a celebrity. He did coke and partied with porn stars with Charley Sheen. He went on a sex tour of the Dominican Republic with Rush Limbaugh. And he was part of an infamous daisy chain set up by the Coca Cola bear. Sixteen bears had a orgy at Wasilia Alaska during the Iditirod race. A sex tape was filmed and posted on the Internet but Yogi was too far gone by then to care.
(Joseph Barbera. Hey There, It’s Yogi Bear The E True Hollywood Story of Yogi Bear)